June 20, 2011

In the “Five Stages of Success,” once you know where you’re headed (“Stage One: Exploration”), then you’re ready for “Stage Two: Preparation.”

Getting Ready for the Journey

This stage comes with a warning. Many people try to either bypass this stage altogether or rush through it. It’s understandable. We’re excited about our goals, and we just want to get on with it! And that’s what most people do: jump in with both feet with little thought about preparation.

Research shows that if you skip this phase, more than likely you’ll hit a brick wall somewhere and be forced to fall  back and regroup. At that point, you’ll realize you got ahead of yourself and need more preparation. It’s easier–and less discouraging–if you take time to do the prep work first.

What Kind of Preparation?

Getting ready for a successful writing career can require preparation in several areas: improved grammar skills, learning about the publishing industry, learning marketing basics, or (like me) taking a writing course that covered it all.

Another kind of preparation may be financial. Unless you’re independently wealthy or your family doesn’t require your income, you may need to prepare financially for the writing career you want. It may mean clearing up debt–the last thing you need as a freelance writer is credit card payments. Or your financial preparation may be saving enough money to quit your day job. (There are many books available on this topic if you need specific help there.)

Take Your Time

Try not to get so frustrated during the preparation stage of success that you skip it or rush it. Take all the time you need to prepare so that you don’t have to do a lot of backtracking later.

By the way, the amount of preparation time you need will be individual to you. I took a writing course, read lots of books and magazines, studied market guides, and (over the years) bought and studied dozens of writing books. I have a writing friend, though, who grew up with a mother who taught children’s literature at the university level. My friend started writing without any formal preparation at all, and to this day she’s never read a how-to writing book (and she has seven critically acclaimed books to her credit).

The moral? Only you know how much preparation you need. And you may not know until you spread your writing wings a bit and try to get published. You might find a few gaps in your knowledge and need to go back and fill those in. That’s fine–nearly all of us have to do that. You can successfully fill in those gaps.

Success Along the Way

Remember to celebrate each step you complete along the way. Celebrate finishing that class. Celebrate finishing that book you chose to study. Celebrate attending your first writing conference.

And ENJOY the preparation phase. Feel the excitement and anticipation, and let it carry you along to “Stage Three: Start-Up” on Wednesday.

5 Comments »

1. 

   I got (and am) hung up on this step! (2 years)
   - this recent second time around. When I was younger, – I’d just write stuff double-spaced, and send it off, (decades ago) and it would get published or not – this was before knowing anything about the pub industry – LOL!
   Getting back into it, I started re-searching books & the web – and it just got more complicated and conflicting.
   (it was probably complicated then, but youth knows no boundaries nor asks permission!) I simply had full certainty on the right to write -

   I still write – but I have bogged on the 69,000 ways to submit and formatting. I am still of the snail mail/stamp generation. There was an art, joy and texture to phys. manus sent – a heft – (although I have no prob with email)
   Now I am just confused with it, and overwhelmed, (using day-to-day stuff to fill in for, and avoid, the black hole of confusion.) I know I will get through this, and the only thing stopping me is me.

   Or a ~hands on!~ with a whip-wielding ‘authorian’ administrative drill sergeant looming, would be bliss!
   But honestly – sometimes less (data) is more!

   With the simplicity and excitement gone, went the joy – bogged.
   The interesting thing is that I find myself doubting myself, thinking less of self, where I never doubted before – (I mean, the word “No” hasn’t killed me yet! LOL!) but I can’t seem to even get to that step now – the stack sits forlorn, softly sifting
   dust motes dancing.
   I still write – have to! – but the plugged up outflow – nowhere to go, is really taking a toll.

   The emphasis seems to have gone from sharing universes, to negotiating through smaller and smaller logistic paths in a more crowded anthill while blindfolded, with an occasional blow about the head with a broad & lumpish cudgel…

   I know the simplicity is there somewhere, but somewhere I have seemed to misplace a large chunk of reality.
   The writing is there, but the ‘everything you have to be fully cognizant of “Before” you even THINK of submitting’ – (and it has to be perfect! according to OUR WHIMS!) is leaving me as buried with the broken tumbled statues that sank eons ago under the waves – or a weak and fading tadpole in the mud.

   My old preparation was simple – a writable surface, a pen, and a honed thought! A stamp, and an address… And anticipation of surprise! (good or bad, didn’t matter!) – This WORKED! Now I have gotten WAY too careful – a victim of ts eliot’s gumby cat and curtain cord…Arrgh!
   Too MUCH preparation is bad for the soul, me thinks! LOL!

   Comment by jen — June 23, 2011 @ 3:00 pm

2. 

   Jen, I really hear you. I went through a two-year period where I was just frozen, and it was weird. It wasn’t until I realized I was reading too many blogs and too many writing books INSTEAD of getting away from it all just to write and think about the story I wanted to tell. You and I would have been happy in the “pen on parchment” days, I think. I started writing before the Internet and email too, and I think it was a blessing. No distractions like that–and no one saying I had to do things THEIR way. Now I purposely don’t get online till late afternoon, and I am working my way back to how I used to write.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — June 23, 2011 @ 3:05 pm

3. 

   I think the handle is getting over being an adult, lose the ‘think’, and grab back audacity by the teeth!
   more like this -

   “Calm the bloody worms down!”
   and she sank to her haunches
   in front of her canvas,
   howling with glee

   Comment by jen — June 23, 2011 @ 3:23 pm

4. 

   Thanks for this series, Kristi. Now that I know that I’m in the preparation stage I can embrace it rather than trying to rush through it.

   Comment by Darcy — June 23, 2011 @ 4:58 pm

5. 

   Darcy, thanks for your comment. Yes, if we rush through any of the stages–giving in to the inner or outer pressure to hurry–we often have to go back and repeat part of it anyway. We could ALL stand to slow down and enjoy the process more.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — June 29, 2011 @ 4:31 pm

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